The length of the level seems right to me: It's challenging but not too long for it to get boring or frustrating.

The UFO sound effect sounds better but...

The volume ramp from zero-to-max may be too slow. How about skipping every other step (i.e., For i = 0 to 15 Step 2)?

The "left over" sound after the UFO effect (when it sticks on a note for a second), is not very appealing. Perhaps it should just stop at a lower note.

Still needs the tractor-beam sound effect.

I would recommend making the length of the level meter (not the level) longer (preferable, if possible), or at least lower it by one row on the screen.

The cloud counter now goes up to 12. How about making it go up to 50 (without changing the length of the level), so that you can treat it as "kilometers" to the Stratosphere (50 km)? After all, everyone knows that UFOs hang around in the Stratosphere.

I have been following this thread although unable to play roms, been away from home for two weeks, just want to say I think its great how helpful DZ has been to the process, lots of great ideas, if the game ends up having any kind of credits he should get a Special Thanks.
Nice to see this kind of support in a community that sometimes gets bogged down in silly arguments.

I have been following this thread although unable to play roms, been away from home for two weeks, just want to say I think its great how helpful DZ has been to the process, lots of great ideas, if the game ends up having any kind of credits he should get a Special Thanks.
Nice to see this kind of support in a community that sometimes gets bogged down in silly arguments.

Nah, no credits for me. This is purely Chris' game. I am just beta testing and offering some minor feedback. I do the same for all Intellivision game programmers, and have done so for years.

I Had a chance to try this game today.
Fun for sure only passed the first level.. 👍🏻
A few thoughts ,
Is there any way when you die to start at the spot you died instead of the beginning of the level? It could be helpful when people reach the harder levels.
Is there any way of keeping that last bottom cloud from disappearing before you touch the next cloud ? It disappears with height and if you miss next cloud or you try to advoid bird and realand on same cloud its gone.
Also I kept looking for something to pick up for bonus points or power ups?

I did an experiment something like this years ago, when IntyBasic was just a baby:

Of course, it was just a hack of clowns and balloons, and I never did anything with it...

So I had to check out this game.

I tried out version dj31.

Initially I had some trouble. When I pressed '1', I got the ending animation instead of any game play.

I tried many key combinations, and finally got the game to play by pressing 9 and 0 at the same time on my keyboard (running jzintv on windows). Not sure what this equates to on the Intellivision.

My visual first impression of the game was that it was running too fast - the player quickly accelerates to max speed so it is hard to appreciate the gravity effects.

But when I actually played the game, it seemed well tuned. I always felt like I could do better next time. I finally made it to level 3, and I had a good time getting there!

Here are my suggestions:

1. When the bird hits the player, the player disappears and the game freezes. This looks like a bug or a crash. I think something should happen here. For example -

a. the player sprite turns upside down and falls off the bottom of the screen.

b. the player sprite explodes.

c. the player sprite bounces away from the main bird and then falls of the screen.

d. a sound effect.

If possible, the bird should keep moving...

2. In clowns and balloons, I varied the frequency of the bouncing sound effect based on the vertical velocity of the player sprite when it hit the trampoline. This gives some variety in the jumping sound. If your jumping sound is a musical type sound, maybe you could chose from a list of sounds based on the player sprite's velocity....

3. Maybe a few frames before the beam up, all the clouds could disappear and the player sprite could drop for a couple frames, and then get hit by the beam and beamed up. Just to add a little drama to it...

To start the game, press the lower action button (Right-Option on my keyboard).

I agree with all your suggestions, and hope they get implemented -- all except for the jump speed. I think it's perfectly fine for the type of game it is. The one from your game, in comparison, looks a bit too slow for this context.

To start the game, press the lower action button (Right-Option on my keyboard).

I agree with all your suggestions, and hope they get implemented -- all except for the jump speed. I think it's perfectly fine for the type of game it is. The one from your game, in comparison, looks a bit too slow for this context.

dZ.

I wasn't suggesting that the jump speed should change - I said it LOOKED fast when I first saw it, but when I played the game it was fine.

My Japanese keyboard doesn't seem to have a "Right option" button. I guess I'll have to try out a controller test program and find out what keys respond to the "lower action button".

I like mr_me's suggestion that maybe any action key should start the game....